National accounts for Bulgaria are compiled according to the main methodological recommendations of the documents "System of National Accounts, 2008" (SNA 2008), an issue of EUROSTAT, IMF, OECD, UN and the World Bank, and "European System of Accounts, 2010" (ESA 2010), an issue of EUROSTAT. Main aggregate of the system of national accounts as an element of the GDP by final expenditure is the Gross capital formation (P.5). Gross capital formation consists of the three components distinguished by their role in the process of reproduction: gross fixed capital formation (P.51g), changes in inventories (P.52) and acquisitions less disposals of valuables (P.53).

Gross fixed capital formation (P.51g) includes acquisitions and disposals of fixed assets. Type of fixed assets: AN.111 Dwellings, AN.112 Other buildings and structures (here should be included AN.1121 Buildings other than dwellings, AN.1122 Other structures and AN.1123 Land improvements), AN.113 Machinery and equipment (here should be included AN.1131 Transport equipment, AN1132 ICT equipment, AN.1139 Other machinery and equipment); AN.114 Weapons systems and AN.115 Cultivated biological resources. The intangible assets are called in ESA 2010 Intellectual property products, coded AN.117. They consist of AN.1171 Research and development, AN.1172 Mineral exploration and evaluation, AN.1173 Computer software and databases, AN.1174 Entertainment, literary or artistic originals and AN.1179 Other intellectual property products. Fixed assets are produced assets used in production for more than one year. Excluded from gross fixed capital formation are in particular expenditures on acquisition of durables purchased by households (defined in ESA 2010 as “machinery and equipment acquired by households for purposes of final consumption”). GFCF should include P.512 Costs of ownership transfer on non-produced assets, assets like land, contracts, leases and licenses.

Changes in inventories (P.52) are recorded by sector, by industry, by commodity and by type of inventories. Changes in inventories include additions to and withdrawals from inventories adjusted for the influence of price changes in period between the acquisition during the year and use or closing stock of unused inventories at the end of year. This applies to types of inventories: materials and assets of gradual consumption, work in progress and semi-finished products of own production, finished products and goods for resale.

Acquisitions less disposals of valuables (P.53) are defined as the difference between additions to and withdrawals from valuables.

Classification system

National accounts aggregates by industry (up to NACE A*64); Classification of Economic Activities (CEA-2008, for international use NACE.BG-2008). ESA2010 uses aggregation levels of the NACE Rev.2 classification to define industry breakdowns (NACE stands for Nomenclature générale des Activités économiques dans les Communautés Européennes). NACE Rev.2 is a classification of economic activities widely used in statistics and in other domains. Requirements for the transmission of NACE Rev.2 series have been specified in the Commission Regulation (EC) No 715/2010 of 10 August 2010

Sector coverage

National accounts describe the total economy of a country. All units that have their centre of predominant economic interest in the economic territory of that country are covered. Two of the most important breakdowns are the breakdown by institutional sector and the breakdown by NACE Rev. 2 activity. Concerning the institutional sector breakdown, ESA 2010 distinguishes five mutually exclusive domestic institutional sectors: (a) non-financial corporations; (b) financial corporations; (c) general government; (d) households; (e) non-profit institutions serving households. The five sectors together make up the total domestic economy. Capital formation in table 0302 refer to the whole economy.

Statistical concepts and definitions

All statistical concepts and definitions to be used in national accounts are described in Annex A of the ESA 2010 Regulation (link to blue book on ESA 2010 methodology).

Statistical unit

Statistical unit for the agregates in this table is the local kind-of-activity unit (local KAU).

Statistical population

All resident statistical units (local KAU).

Reference area

The reference area for Gross capital formation in this table is the total economy of the country.

Time coverage

data starting from 1995

Base period

2010

Statistical processing

Source data

Gross fixed capital formation. Data on Gross fixed capital formation, namely data on acquisition and disposal of fixed assets are collected for all the units compiling balance sheet in identical annexes to the annual reports. There are two types of annexes for these units: "Annex for the expenditure on acquisition of fixed tangible assets (FTA)" and "Annex for non-current (fixed) assets as of 31.12.". The "Annex for non-current (fixed) assets as of 31.12." is the main data source for estimates of GFCF by type of assets, by institutional sector and by activity. The data for the government sector institutions are compared and coordinated with the data from the “Annual report of the consolidated fiscal program”. For the units not compiling balance sheet data are collected with "Annex 3. Fixed tangible and intangible assets". Additional sources for Gross fixed capital formation: Annex for revenues of construction enterprises by type of construction; Quarterly survey "Building permits issued and construction of new buildings started"; Report on revenues and expenditures; Annex for production and sales of industrial goods; Custom statistics by product groups; Economic Accounts in Agriculture; Frascati Manual surveys; Balance of payment data; Structure of earnings survey; National accounts data. Changes in inventories: Annual reports. Acquisitions less disposals of valuables: Data on valuables are collected in the "Annex for the non-current (fixed) assets as of 31.12."

Frequency of data collection

Annual

Data collection

Exhaustively for all units

Data validation

Implementation of validated procedures for assessing data quality

Data compilation

Implementation of validated procedures for assessing the quality of data and the development of estimation of the completeness of the data.

Adjustment

Quality management

Quality assurance

Quality is assured by strict application of ESA 2010 concepts and by thorough validation of the data.

Quality assessment

Relevance

User needs

National Accounts data is key information for economic policy monitoring and decision making, forecasting, for administrative purposes and for information of the general public and for economic research. Users of annual national accounts data are typically interested in analysing structural changes in the economy from a medium-term perspective

User satisfaction

Completeness

BG NSI follows up the interest perceived from users on the basis of databases and downloads of the data.

Data completeness - rate

Accuracy and reliability

Overall accuracy

BG NSI publishes all revision and explanations of the data.

Sampling error

NA

Sampling errors - indicators

NA

Non-sampling error

NA

Coverage error

NA

Over-coverage - rate

NA

Common units - proportion

NA

Measurement error

NA

Non response error

NA

Unit non-response - rate

NA

Item non-response - rate

NA

Processing error

NA

Imputation - rate

NA

Model assumption error

NA

Seasonal adjustment

NA

Data revision - policy

Data for this table are revised if nessesary once per year with the t+9 months releases.

Data revision - practice

National accounts data are subject to continuous routine revisions as new input data becomes available. This will typically also entail revisions of the national accounts aggregates, which are derived from these data. In BG national accounts two types of revisions are: Regular – quarterly, preliminary, final data; and Major - based on implementation of new methodology or GNI reservations.

Data revision - average size

Timeliness and punctuality

Timeliness

Time lag - first results

The data transmitted are in compliance with ESA 2010 DTP and respective derogations for the country.

Time lag - final results

The data transmitted are in compliance with ESA 2010 DTP and respective derogations for the country.

Punctuality

Punctuality - delivery and publication

The data transmitted are in compliance with ESA 2010 DTP and respective derogations for the country.

Coherence and comparability

Comparability - geographical

The comparability is insured by the application of common definitions of ESA 2010

Asymmetry for mirror flows statistics - coefficient

Comparability - over time

By using a common framework, the European System of Accounts ESA 2010, data can be comparable over time.

Length of comparable time series

Coherence - cross domain

In certain cases, data from other domains of economic statistics, i.e. business statistics and external trade statistics can be used for cross-checking purposes.

Coherence - sub annual and annual statistics

Annual and quarterly data for all sub domains of national accounts should be coherent.

Coherence - National Accounts

Annual and quarterly data for all sub domains of national accounts should be coherent.

Coherence - internal

Annual and quarterly data for all sub domains of national accounts should be coherent.

Accessibility and clarity

News release

NA

Publications

Electronic publication

On-line database

Eurostat websait

Data tables - consultations

Micro-data access

NA

Other

NA

Metadata - consultations

Documentation on methodology

(1) European System of Accounts (2010) (Eurostat). (2) GNI Inventory for Bulgaria.

Metadata completeness – rate

Quality documentation

Quality is assured by strict application of ESA 2010 concepts and by thorough validation of the data

Cost and burden

NA

Confidentiality

Confidentiality - policy

Law on Statistics; Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.

Confidentiality – data treatment

If data are with a confidentiality flag or are under an embargo date, these data are not published.